Absolutely Kosher Records halts production indefinitely

This sucks. Absolutely Kosher — the excellent off-center indie rock label formed in 1998 that fostered a hell of a lot of great 00s bands in their pre-stardom years (Frog Eyes, Xiu Xiu, Sunset Rubdown, The Wrens, The Mountain Goats) — is saying goodbye to record-making for the time being, due to financial bullshit. Label owner Cory Brown posted a statement about the decision on the label’s website:

After 13 years, Absolutely Kosher will cease to release records for the foreseeable future. We’ve got one more album to share with the world before scaling back the operation to just administer our catalog. It’s by a Canadian artist called Himalayan Bear and the album is called Hard Times. No, the irony isn’t lost on me.

We should’ve been celebrating the label’s bar mitzvah this year, but it’s not to be. I wish I could tell you there’s a grand plan, a new chapter waiting to be written, but the truth is, we’ve been struggling for years and the only thing on my plate right now is to eliminate our debts and rejuvenate my spirits. We’ve made all sorts of adaptive changes at the label over the last several years, many of them yielding some positive results, but none at the scale and speed we need them to be at.

I got the chance to briefly chat with Brown at a record fair a few years ago, and he came across as a really smart, nice dude, and the fact that the artists on Absolutely Kosher were never really bound by any contract says a lot about the label’s generosity. Here’s hoping things turn around for them soon.

As a Chicagoan, I’ve got it easy. Pretty much every major or minor tour comes through here; big-ass fests are go-down blocks from my house annually; and I have plenty of shitty baseball teams on which to to take out my personal frustrations and shortcomings. So when I see a thing in the local press about London’s The Wire bringing their ninth annual Adventures in Modern Music series back to the Windy City for five days of “outsider sounds” at venues that I could throw a rock at from my street and hit with ease, I’m just like “oh, cool. Maybe I’ll go to that shit. As long as it doesn’t interfere with the Bears game… those fucking bums.”

But for anyone who doesn’t have my good fortune and can’t get enough glitches in their synths and synths in their glitches, I say get the hell over here right away. “Adventures in Modern Music: A Five Day Celebration of Outsider Sounds” kicks off next Wednesday (September 28) and runs through Sunday, October 2. It features a whole deep dish pizza-load of rare performances by all the experimental musicians you know and love if you read this bullshit website (including John Maus, Pelican, Ducktails, Grouper, Oval, Peaking Lights, Oneohtrix Point Never, Liturgy, Sun Araw, and more) performing non-bullshit sets at such bullshit-deterrent venues as The Empty Bottle, The Museum of Contemporary Art, and Heaven Gallery in the Wicker Park neighborhood. There’s even a movie screening or two and an oddball collaboration between lo-fi’s own Dirty Beaches and retro’s own Frankie Rose.

Tickets range from $15 to $20 a night, which really isn’t too bad when you consider that it would cost you like twice that much if the tickets were twice as expensive. Right?

Remix albums almost always receive a healthy dose of skepticism from me, to the point where I’d prefer to just completely ignore their existence in whatever artist’s catalog. I can probably count on a single hand the number of remix albums that I’ve actually enjoyed, and I attribute this fact to the inherent unoriginality associated with such releases. Compared to the experience of listening to an album of completely new material for the first time, they just aren’t the same. And it’s rare that they maintain a similar degree of stylistic consistency.

Now, if you share my self-righteous opinion, I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear that The Juan MacLean’s newest, digital-only album Everybody Get Close isn’t entirely remixes. Eight of the 11 tracks are either songs that appeared originally on the Find a Way EP (which was only previously available at Juan MacLean live shows), or previously released outtakes. So, you know, there’s still not really any new material on this album (to be released November 7), but at least fans won’t have to endure 40 minutes of variously attributed electronic pop incongruity. The title track is available for download here.

Also, it’s worth mentioning that John MacLean and bandmate Nancy Whang have begun work on a genuine 3rd LP for DFA, which is, as of now, unnamed. Presumably, the hope is that Everybody Get Close will tide you over in the meantime.

The National have been touring behind 2010’s High Violet (TMT Review) on 4AD for what seems like forever now, and it turns out they’re not done yet! The band announced several US dates for the end of the year, including a week-long stint at the Beacon Theater in New York City — with a different opener each night!

These Stateside dates are welcome news to homegrown fans of the Brooklyn group, who have spent most of the year playing European festivals. Opening for The National is an impressive array of bands including The Walkmen, Wye Oak, Local Natives, Neko Case, The War on Drugs, Sharon Van Etten, and So Percussion.

“Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance to the radio” — Ian MacKaye, urging teenagers to push their energies into the wholesome activity of dance.

With that declaration, Ian MacKaye and his legendary Manchester post-punk group Pansy Division gave generations of goth kids the inclination to dance. Even the blackest heart could be warmed by a few minutes dancing, be it in the bedroom or the darkest, dankest of clubs. Just one of the millions affected by this siren call was Dominick Fernow a.k.a. Prurient. While Prurient was once exclusively in the business of harsh noise music, he has learned to accept his inner goth-dancer. Exhibit A: his recent Bermuda Drain full-length (TMT Review). Exhibit B: he plays synthesizer in Cold Cave. Exhibit C: his upcoming EP, Time’s Arrow, out October 25 through Hydra Head.

Described by those in the know as “a brutal yet at times dance-laden assault on the senses,” Time’s Arrow is meant to provide somewhat of a counterpoint to Prurient’s past abrasive tendencies. Though still said to include “feats of unbridled harshness,” the new EP also contains such elements as glistening synth melodies, dancey beats, and an uncomfortable sense of intimacy. Dancing? Synthesizers? Uncomfortable? Clearly, Fernow is out to accurately depict everyone’s high school prom in music.

Prurient has just shy of a handful of live dates on the horizon. With that said, congratulations Prurient fans in Italy and Belgium! Fewer congratulations to the rest of you!

Anders Trentemøller of, well, Trentemøller, has announced the upcoming release of a new double album titled Reworked / Remixed on his own label, In My Room. As the name implies, the pair of discs will feature remixes Trentemøller has done for other artists, as well as reworked guest versions of Trentemøller tracks from 2010’s Into The Great Wide Yonder.

Artists and bands contributing their take on Trentemøller’s Euro soundscapes (think if The Knife and Coldplay got together to score a Spaghetti Western) include Marie Fisker, Andrew Weatherall Prinz, and Kollektiv Turmstrasse. Trentemøller provides remixes of tracks by the likes of Depeche Mode, Modeselektor with Thom Yorke, and Franz Ferdinand, among others.

To support the release, Trentemøller has also announced a fall tour of the US with a full band in tow. If clips from this summer’s performances at various European festivals are any indication, Trentemøller brings more than just his laptop to try and entertain audiences. Expect moving set pieces, dramatic lighting, pretty girls playing Theremin, and silly northern European haircuts.